You don’t say. http://t.co/mCSho7Dlpb pic.twitter.com/ioAMu2Xrlj
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) July 16, 2014
Apart from welcoming Zaid and awaiting Kay’s next dispatch, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
This post is in: Open Threads
You don’t say. http://t.co/mCSho7Dlpb pic.twitter.com/ioAMu2Xrlj
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) July 16, 2014
Apart from welcoming Zaid and awaiting Kay’s next dispatch, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
This post is in: Open Threads
Hi, it’s Zaid here. I want to thank John for giving me this opportunity and I’m glad to be writing alongside Tom and the others. Balloon Juice is an awesome read, always, and I hope I can provide the same.Now, jumping right into it.
As you’ve probably noticed, Israel is bombing the heck out of Gaza. The reasons for this are myriad, but often presented as Israeli self-defense for rocket fire. Scott McConnell at The American Conservative and JJ Goldberg at The Jewish Daily Forward have the best timelines for why that’s bunk — Bibi Netanyahu broke the ceasefire that had been in place since November 2012, largely for political reasons.The ceasefire itself was under very limited conditions with Hamas, the political movement with a militant wing that controls Gaza. During the past seven years, Israel has continued to control access to Gaza’s imports, land, sea, and air. The Gaza Strip has been under virtual siege this entire time, with Israelis even counting out the calories they estimate Gazans are allowed to have. This siege, which is essentially a soft form of war on Gaza’s entire population, is the main reason there hasn’t been a renewed ceasefire — Hamas has offered one, but it must include some alleviation of the siege. The Egyptian offer includes no such thing.
Still, I have been told by numerous Professional Democrats over the past few weeks — people who work in liberal organizations close to the Hill and White House — that this is a very complicated situation, and that I’ve made it all too simple in my narrative of the Palestinians being denied basic voting rights or statehood for nearly fifty years. I don’t really believe that, and privately, many others in American politics don’t believe that either (for example the Clintons, who I’ve heard through several well-placed sources, really strongly dislike Netanyahu and blame him for the failure of talks).
But let’s say the issue really is very complicated. Then we have to ask ourselves, why is the American response so simplistic? Our politicians line up behind the Israelis in every action, never threatening to cut aid or weapons flow or ending our veto of UN resolutions pertaining to the issue. That’s certainly not a complex approach.
Yet the most simple response I’ve seen yet has been from a group of New York Democrats who held a rally in favor of the Israeli action. In their telling, there are no Palestinians stripped of rights for decades that they would instantly get if they were, say, from New Jersey but could make a credible claim they are Jewish (they would get instant citizenship under that circumstance). There is no cruel siege on Gaza, nor ever-expanding settlements (read: colonies) in the West Bank that are making a Palestinian state their impossible. There is only the defense of Israel:
“The people outside protesting are protesting because innocent Palestinian civilians have been killed. It would seem to me the protest would be with Hamas because you cannot negotiate for peace if you cannot control those people who are supposed to be your negotiating partners,” Mr. Rangel declared.
“As peaceful as I am, I find it impossible for me to believe that someone who says I should be dead, I should negotiate and see how dead you want me,” he added. […]
“Our enemies have sought the destruction of the Jewish people for thousands of years. Much of the opposition you’re seeing to Israel and its policies, much of what you hear out there, is no more than a new face for a very old hatred and a very old evil,” Mr. Nadler said, alluding to the protesters beyond the gates.
Notice Nadler’s allusion that the peace protesters are simply motivated by hatred of Jews (as far as I’m aware many of the protesters were themselves Jews who oppose Netanyahu’s policies).
New York City politicians are infamous for their pandering to hardline supporters of Israel (it’s a myth that Jewish Americans are united in support of Israeli policy, but older, hawkish donors, many of them from New York, form much of the backbone of the pro-Israel lobby, alongside Christian Zionists). Here’s New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio with Avigdor Lieberman:
Who is Avigdor Lieberman? He’s the Israeli Foreign Minister who has called for the execution of Arab lawmakers and wants to expel Israel’s small Arab population into the Palestinian territories, a plan which led to condemnation from not-at-all-a-leftist Ariel Sharon. By all means, Lieberman is the polar image of those Muslim extremists who seek to destroy Israel and expel its Jewish population. Yet erstwhile progressive DeBlasio leaves his own values at the door to pander to extremists like Lieberman, knowing that New York City’s Arab population doesn’t have the political capital to punish him.
But for New York politicians, pandering to Israel really isn’t enough. They’ve gone out of their way to endorse policy that proves to many of their donors that they can Stand Up To The Muslims. When it was revealed that the NYPD was conducting thorough surveillance of innocent Muslim student groups, mosques, even kabob shops, none other than Netroots Nation speaker Chuck Schumer rode to their defense. New York City politicians were so mute about the spying scandal that you couldn’t find a high-profile critic of the NYPD until you crossed the river and had Chris Christie of all people defend New York (and New Jersey’s) Muslims.
I grew up in the South in the 1990’s, and I was blessed to be living in a time that was post-segregation. A lot of people don’t know this, but the South today is more well-integrated than the Northeast and Midwest (the West has a very small black population relative to the East Coast, so it’s sort of problematic to compare segregation here and there by the traditional black-white ratios).
I was welcomed by my mostly white neighbors and friends, and even after the 9/11 attacks, I was overwhelmed by all the people who came to my family and told me they would watch out for us if anyone gave us trouble.
This didn’t happen magically. As the readers of the blog know, there was a robust civil rights movement, and people even gave their lives, to ensure that the South would change. The Democratic Party’s Southern members were the most vocal and outspoken advocates against racial integration, and the famous Dixiecrats, pulling for the votes of white racists, made a name for themselves in rejecting the policies of their Democratic presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
When I watch New York Democrats who are pro-LGBT rights, pro-labor rights, pro-equality in virtually every arena endorse NYPD spying on Muslims, grotesque attacks on basic faith rights (the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy), and pander to extremists like Avigdor Lieberman, I’m reminded of the Dixiecrats. A lot of liberals are offended by this suggestion, I’m sure, but a lot of liberals just don’t pay much attention to American Muslims or Arabs, and the way they are marginalized in our body politic.
In the coming years, the Democratic coalition may shift South. Enormous numbers of hispanic immigrants and immigrants from rest of the country, as well as increased participation by young people, women, and African Americans, all of whom are much less anti-Muslim than the AIPAC crowd, should place the South in solidly Democratic territory within the next decade. As Israel slides towards being a pariah state and the U.S. disengages from its wars in the Muslim world, it may be that the Democrats of the Northeast do find themselves in a historically mirrored position — defending extreme anti-Muslim policies in an attempt to please donors who judge policy simply by its pro-Israel, anti-Muslim optics.
One would hope that figures like DeBlasio, Schumer, Nadler, and others wouldn’t want to be in that spot. But it may just come to that.
by Kay| 162 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Organizing & Resistance, Daydream Believers
Greetings from Detroit! Lovely day here; 70’s and sunny.
Here’s a very small activist and her dad. Her mom is working at Netroots.
Back to bidness. Organizing the south was primarily a labor discussion – Fight For Fifteen and UAW representatives on the panel- lots of discussion of Moral Mondays and the UAW organizing effort in Tennessee.
Very passionate people – there was some frustration with the lack of engagement by labor groups and progressive organizations in the south.
The panelists seemed to be completely convinced that the following is true-
From MaryBe McMillan, 1st on L in photo:
“The only way we win economic justice in this country is to organize the south”
Great back and forth between panelists on the following –
From Cherie Deseline, 3rd from L in photo:
“The systemic root of exploitation of workers is ownership of bodies, especially black bodies”
From Carol McDonald, 2nd from L in photo:
“Can’t work effectively in the south without anti-racist lens on organizing. Not believable or credible without it”.
This post is in: Excellent Links, Open Threads, Assholes, Jump! You Fuckers!, Our Awesome Meritocracy
Hey, remember Sean “(Tolkien-inspired) Weddings Used to Be Sacred” Parker, the Internet-enabled billionaire who threw a 9,500-word on-line tantrum when Internet-enabled strangers made fun of his overwrought wedding planning? He’s still a douche canoe — or, at the least, a very public sucker. Heather Digby Partington Parton is not usually known for cheap mockery, but Parker just seems to have that effect on people:
The last we heard of the Napster billionaire and Baby Mugwump, Sean Parker, his interest in politics had led him to embrace a “No-Labels” style approach in which he would pay large sums of money to various inside the Beltway players to help him decide which members of both parties he should donate to. You see, he’s very concerned about the loss of bipartisan spirit in Washington and he wants to invent a new app for Congress!…
Yesterday, we got an update on his exciting new project. He’s hired the company of the tri-partisan former adviser to conservative Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, President Barack Obama and the U.K. Conservative Party Jim Messina and his hardcore GOP partner Charlie Black. And they’re doling out the big bucks to Republicans who have drawn primary challengers. Evidently, the Beltway now sees that the only way to bring the country back to the sensible center is by helping very conservative Republican incumbents win reelection. How very convenient for the GOP…
It’s fairly clear what’s happening here. The youthful billionaire decided that he needed to talk to the “experts” about what to do with his money. And all those experts, knowing a rich sucker when they see one, persuaded him that the biggest problem in Washington was the lack of bipartisanship, which they attributed to the Tea Party. They told him that the only way to get anything done is to give money to incumbent Republicans…
More (bilious) entertainment at the link.
Either nobody shared the Original Poker Secret with Mr. Parker, or he was too egregiously self-assured to understand it: There’s a mark at every table. If you look around the table and can’t spot the mark — it’s you.
Late Night Open Thread: Sean Parker, Still A Douche CanoePost + Comments (296)
by Kay| 110 Comments
This post is in: Election 2014, Events, Getting The Band Back Together, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing, Going Galt, The Decadent Left In Its Enclaves On The Coasts
I’m going to Netroots Nation for Balloon Juice tomorrow. I went in 2011 and mistermix and DougJ went in 2012. Also, there was the famous John Cole and ABL Balloon Juice trip to the Democratic National Convention in 2012.
I will cover the keynotes: Vice President Biden, Senator Warren and Reverend Barber. I’m also going to the Ohio caucus and I hope to hit some other state caucuses. I will (of course) go to the public education privatization panel (my personal obsession) and anything I can find on voting rights. I’m also going to the Fight for Fifteen panel and lunch. I have corresponded with Angry Black Lady and when I figure out which panel she’s on I’ll go to that too.
Here’s the schedule of events. I’ll do my best to get posts up on events in a timely manner but as you probably have figured out by now I am not very good at speedy-quick “BREAKING NEWS” type dispatches, so just be your patient and kind selves and remember I am not (actually) a journalist.
This thing looks huge, just a jam-packed schedule. I am absolutely thrilled it’s in Detroit this year.
This post is in: Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality
Via Dave Weigel, from the NYTimes:
…[A] debate in the House Rules Committee on the merits of a lawsuit that Speaker John A. Boehner plans to file against President Obama, exposed simmering partisan tensions as Democrats used the occasion to ridicule the speaker’s move as a hollow ruse.
“We have seen subpoena after subpoena after subpoena, witch hunt after witch hunt,” Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, said. “The American people should sue the House leadership for emotional pain and suffering.”
Republican members of the Rules Committee, and the legal experts they called to defend their case, were pressed to explain what appears to be the biggest problem with the House of Representatives’ filing a lawsuit against a president: the need to prove that the House has somehow been injured by the president’s actions….
“The lawsuit is clearly being used to appease members of the Republican Party who will not rest until President Obama is charged with articles of impeachment,” said Representative Louise M. Slaughter of New York, the committee’s senior Democrat. “This incredible waste of time will also be a colossal waste of money,” she added, pressing Republicans to reveal how much they were spending on the case.
Far from unanimously embracing the speaker’s plan, some prominent Republicans have been tepid in their support…
Democrats and their constitutional experts pointed out that the lawsuit could have consequences Republicans probably do not intend. If it is successful in challenging the administration’s move to delay parts of the health care law, for example, the result will be that the law is put into effect more quickly…
My emphases. If we didn’t have so many categories already, I’d add “Republican Clown Car on Parade” to the list…
This post is in: Music, Open Threads, Assholes
Shout-out for all our grammar trolls!
Another tidbit of good news, from Dave Weigel:
When a headline informs readers that a “former South Carolina Republican Party” official has made a shocking statement, the answer is always Todd Kincannon. Briefly the executive director of the state party, a designation that is more than enough for HuffPost or Salon hate-reading, Kincannon keeps a hyperactive Twitter schedule… If a liberal site (or a cluster of liberal Twitterers) explodes with outrage, he did his job. “Politainment is the wave of the future,” said Kincannon during one Twitter carnival.
“Said,” past tense. After having one account shut down, and after launching a new one this year, Kincannon built up a fan base of more than 50,000 followers with jokes about having Bowe Bergdahl assassinated (the next attorney general would likely be “a friend” who could pull it off) and with gut-busters like “Why do third world countries let athletes do anything besides mine blood diamonds? Your children are starving and my wife needs earrings!” Then he went silent. In a widely circulated letter to people who’d ordered his new e-book, Kincannon explained that Christmas would not come this year. “In early June, just as I was preparing to send out my book,” he said, “I received an unexpected notice from the South Carolina Office of Disciplinary Counsel that the investigation was going to continue because of comments I made on Twitter regarding a left wing political activist named Col. Morris Davis, a frequent guest on MSNBC.”…
Because I’m a devout Cynic, I’m thinking this translates “Kincannon’s trolling just isn’t getting him enough notice to make it worth the trouble of mining those sub-Stormfront hate sites for his funnies any more, so he’s hoping to go out in a blaze of possibly-profitable public martyrdom”, but that’s just me.
***********
Apart from low humor, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Wednesday Evening Open Thread: <em>Don’t Be A Moran!</em>Post + Comments (120)